Fluid specimens, particularly urine, are normally collected in containers, vials or cups. When it is desired to run tests on liquid or fluid specimens contained in the cups, the lids are normally removed and specimen samples are taken out of the cups and transferred to a test apparatus. In the Instacheck® Drug Screen Drug Test, a urine sample from a cup is drawn up in a pipette and 3-4 drops (˜0.2 ml) are then dispensed onto the sample well. The urine then travels up a chemical strip for 3-8 minutes. The chemical strip was pre-coated with drug conjugate on the test band. A colored anti-drug monoclonal antibody colloidal gold conjugate pad is placed at one end of the strip. In the absence of the drug in the urine, the colored antibody colloidal gold conjugate moves along the sample solution upward on the strip chromoatographically by the capillary action to the immobilized drug conjugate zone on the test band region and attaches to the drug conjugate to form a visible line on the antibody complexes with the drug conjugate. Therefore, the formation of a visible precipitate in the test zone occurs when the test urine is negative for the drug. When drug is present in the urine, the drug/metabolite antigen competes with drug conjugate on the test band region for the limited antibody sites on the antibody-colloidal gold conjugate. When a sufficient concentration of drug is present, it will fill the limited antibody binding sites. This will prevent attachment of the colored antibody-colloidal gold conjugate to the drug conjugate zone on the test band region. Therefore, absence of the color band on the test region indicates a positive result.
A difficulty with the Instacheck® test is that the urine needs to be transferred from a cup onto test strips with the lid of the cup removed, thus exposing the operator and work area to possible contamination.
Additionally, the specimen sample could become contaminated as well as the worker and the surrounding equipment. Furthermore, with lid removed, spillage and loss of the unique specimens may occur. Thus, it is the object of this invention to provide a custom designed integrated system composed of a custom collection cup used as a collection and testing vessel and a custom designed slide-in test cartridge to test for drugs of abuse and other chemical and biological substance in urine and other liquid mediums in a closed, safe and secure environment.